tengo una casa

finally, after looking at about 10 flats, i found a place to live! large bedroom, walking distance to work, two toilets, four roommates. pictures to come. Beth, Christine and I had a few celebratory drinks at our favorite local, the Sekforde Arms, which got a new toilet seat by the way. Christine and I then got thai takeout and i was asleep by 10:15. long. ass. week. but fruitful. :-)

fancy dress party!

thursday was our global annual company awards party. every year we have a different theme, and the london office selected "vegas glam" fancy dress. fancy dress actually means something more like "costume" here, so Christine and I were a bit unsure about what to wear. i certainly don't own anything that qualifies as a costume let alone a "fancy dress". luckily, Beth has to attend a lot of work functions that require this type of apparel, so she hooked me up!

the party itself was at the dollar bar, which is a swanky joint in the hip and trendy exmouth market. lovely location as it's right around the corner from our flat.


ready for a night out!


ah ruffles. sometimes i really like being a girl.

we arrived around 4:30 pm, bit late (demanding clients kept us at work), but our colleagues were still munching their way through starters, which included:

goat cheese salad OR
calamari OR
beet salad

there were also bottles of red and white wine being passed around. the very attentive staff never let my glass get below half full...my company is awesome.

for dinner we got to choose between steak or a burger. guess what this american girl chose! :-)


i like my meat medium rare, with a really big knife.


ambiance

following dinner, we watched the corporate video featuring the winners of the global awards. this sounds boring but it really isn't, and in fact it was cool to know that my friends in NYC and cincy were all watching the same thing. one of cincinnati's winning projects showed footage of all my old co-workers and the office, which made me cry. i don't allow myself to dwell on cincinnati - it's like there's a frosted glass wall in my brain - london's on one side, and cincinnati is on the other. blocked, basically, from my main stream of consciousness but never far from my thoughts.

anyway i got over it quickly because i drank the better part of a bottle of wine with dinner! :-) once the video ended, we trooped to the downstairs part of the bar where we had the whole place to ourselves and an open tab. have i mentioned that my company is awesome??? i mingled with lots of my co-workers who are really, really cool. in fact, one of them was dressed as a pimp (vegas glam, remember?) so about 10 of us girls piled into a tiny room that can only be described as a cave to get our picture taken with him. he had a cane. it was fantastic.




hangin' in the cave

around 10 pm, we decided we had probably caused enough trouble, so we cruised out, hit our local kebab shop, and called it a night. we did, after all, have to work the next day.

the wheels on the bus...

i was flat hunting again tonight, this time in barbican (close by) and stoke newington (too far to walk on a school night). Christine and I also needed to run to Beth's to pick up some emergency loaner cocktail dresses for our annual office awards party. fun!

the first flat was super cool, the room was huge, and it was walking distance to work. hopefully they call me back! i made a quick pit stop at Beth's to pick up the dresses, which Christine took back with her so i wouldn't have to take them...

on the bus!

busses scare me. they make frequent inexplicable stops, sometimes don't stop when you think they're going to, have a confusing ticketing system, and strange buttons everywhere. however, EVERYONE here takes the bus. you have to. the tube, much as i love it, just doesn't go everywhere. Beth and Christine helped me figure out online where to pick up a bus from angel to stoke newington, and i set off to get some cash and then top up my oyster card.

standing in line at the tube station to top up, a man tapped me on the shoulder and handed me an all-day pass. he said i looked confused (permanent state of being, really) and that he was done using it. score! saved me £4!!

the bus came right away and i realized that it would be really, really hard to screw things up because:

- a voice came over the loudspeaker before we stopped each time
- there was an electronic screen in the bus telling you what the next stop was

even i could figure it out! i successfully made it to my destination, met a cool dude in the flat (smokers though, i just can't do it) and got back on the bus to go home. the return bus made no announcements about when/where we were stopping, and i was a little perplexed, which resulted in me getting off about two blocks too early. better than two blocks in the wrong direction i guess?

at any rate, i'm no longer afraid of the bus! hooray!

thank God...

...there is life on this planet. :-)

today started off kind of dismal. i was missing home, i had two flat appointments that i wasn't excited about (one had the word "mansions" in the building name...never a good sign), and i had my first client meeting, which i WAS excited about but also really, really nervous. the hour of judgment is upon us, friends.

needless to say, i went into work slightly panicked and left in pretty much the same state. i'm glad to be busy, which means i was also feeling guilty about leaving at 6. and i was not at all looking forward to flat hunting. again.

flat #1 was about a block from casa de tortugas (friday's nightmare). the place was actually decent, despite it's dodgy location. however, it didn't have a lounge and that's a must for me. i need a couch to slough around on sometimes, you know?

i also was feeling sort of pissy that i haven't made any friends on my own here. i mean, i have been here almost two weeks (ok, my expectations may be a little high, as usual). so when i was trolling about shoeless in flat #1 (mandatory), i was surprised to make a new friend. we were both kind of put off by the place and it made for a good bonding experience. it led to fun drinks at a pub after viewing flat #2.

flat #2 was super cool by the way. it was only one block into the land of endless kebab shops and off license stores (read: ick), there were TWO full bathrooms, and the room was really cozy. it also had a nice kitchen.

perhaps the craziest thing of all that happened today is the fact that i saw a FOX run by as i was leaving flat #2. i have never seen a live fox before. ever. so to see one in london was pretty f-ing amazing to me.

i guess this is one of the reasons i moved away. even if you THINK you know how things are going to go here, sometimes you get a surprise that reminds you that you don't have CLUE...like when you spot a very woodsy creature, darting in front of you on Essex Street in between pubs, parked cars, and chinese restaurants. how very interesting this city is.

me, myself, and i

saturday morning i woke up to the beautiful sun shining and a mild 45-degree temperature outside. what better to do on this perfect day than...hunt for flats. :-) i had no saturday appointments scheduled so i hopped onto my vast array of flat hunting sites, found some places with phone numbers, and became a woman with a mission. this is how the hunt panned out:

Flat #1 - Bethnal Green
bethnal green was a bit north of town, about an hour's walk from clerkenwell (clarkenwell if you're local) through the hip and trendy areas of hoxton and shoreditch. however, the "street" i looked at had four buildings of council flats surrounding an overgrown patch of grass, which was encircled by a rusty wrought-iron fence. i had to wait a good 10 minutes for the leasing agent and got to enjoy the cacophony of yelling neighbors and yipping dogs. the flat was good sized but had no living room and even thought it was advertised as a non-smoking building, there was a very full ashtray on the table. nonononononononono. i didn't even say goodbye, just backed slowly out the door asking where the nearest underground station was. :-)

Flat #2 - Angel/King's Cross
fantastic location? check. good commute to work? check. cute neighborhood next to the canal? check.



hookah on the kitchen counter???? hmm, ok. i might have been able to overlook the housemates' shisha habit but the place didn't have a lounge (living room) and it was a single bedroom. bah.

i walked BACK to clerkenwell, had a nice Skype chat with my dad, then headed out to meet Christine, Beth, and Lou who had been cycling all day. our restaurant/bar of choice was cafe kick (foosball bar from last week), because they had an amazing tapas menu that we wanted to try! i got there a few minutes early and ordered a double G&T from the bartender, who i swear could have been eddie vedder's much younger brother. things were looking up.

we had a fabulous dinner...chorizo, grilled calamari, Spanish tortilla, goat cheese, quesadillas...mmm. afterwards we rocked a few more games of foosball then left to go watch some big title fight on TV at the hobgoblin. i know nothing about boxing but we walked in just as they were announcing the winner, who happened to be from england. the bar erupted into cheers, which was actually quite cool. the DJ started up then, playing de la soul (which seems to be standard at clubs), so of course a dance party broke out for the next few hours.

we got kicked out sometime after 2 am (bars close here???) and the gang was headed to lexington, but i was drunkety drunk and TIRED from walking around all day, so i called it a night. 3 am found me full of leftover fajitas, passed out happily under the blankets. :-)

don't step on the turtle

given last night's adventures, Christine and I were looking forward to a night in. however, i found a flat online at lunch that had a viewing tonight, so we decided to take a quick trip up to hoxton. i looked at a place in this neighborhood the other night and really liked the area...good transport links, walking distance to work, cute in general, and WELL LIT. :0

it was drizzling (spitting, really) a bit when we set out, but not too bad. after about a 25-minute walk, we arrived at a building that slightly resembled a shorter version of the siddall dormitory at UC. my first thought was "ex council housing". council housing is basically section 8, and there are a lot of buildings around that USED to be council housing and are now converted. i would also liken this building to the roadway inn along central parkway on the edge of clifton.

i was frightened, but upon looking in a few people's windows (don't judge me for being nosy), we decided it might be an ok place. the current tenant opened the door and we were treated to:

- a really odd smell that i couldn't place

- beige outdoor carpeting that no one had bothered to tack down at the edges

- a pile of shoes and a basketball

after a quick peek in the kitchen (good sized fridge!), we meandered into the living room to meet the other tenants, who turned out to be a couple, intertwined on the couch like overgrown rose bushes. they were watching Elf. we introduced ourselves and i shifted slightly in an effort to look a little less terrified when Christine cried out "don't step on the turtle!"

i looked behind me and sure enough, a turtle was crawling around on the carpet next to my foot. at that point the doorbell rang, and the turtle took off towards it. the housemates scrambled after the little guy (girl) screeching "get the turtle!!" luckily someone grabbed it up before it could escape into the concrete hallway.

two more flat hunters came in and we all had the grand tour together. four of us pondered the bedroom, while Christine waited in the hall next to the bathroom. she later mentioned that a bottle of vagisil was sitting on the sink.

there wasn't much more to see, so the housemates invited us to have a seat on the futons for a chat. they were actually really friendly, and i felt like i was back in the Peruvian hostel. then two of the three housemates lit up cigarettes. FINALLY we were able to leave and Christine and I escaped into the night. we hit the hallway and she literally whispered "run".

which we did, laughing our asses off as we scuttled out of the tenement.

the whole thing is hysterical actually, even the part when it starting pouring SIDEWAYS on our walk home. i looked down at one point pondering what looked like a "stain" on my pants, only to realize it was the only dry spot remaining. i am cracking up as i type this thing out.

time for a glass of wine and some vitamin C.

bonfire night

so wednesday night around 6 pm, someone on the company entertainment committee went around and put packs of sparklers (fireworks!) on everyone's desk with a note that said thursday was bonfire night! (the note also asked that we please don't light the sparklers in the office).

wtf is bonfire night, you ask? i had to wikipedia it:

Bonfire night marks the downfall of the Gunpowder Plot of 5 November 1605, in which a number of Catholic conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, attempted to destroy the Houses of Parliament

those darn Catholics. hey, wait a second...I'm one of them!

anyway. in addition to it being bonfire night, it was also two of our designers' last day in the office AND someone's birthday, so a massive happy hour was planned at our local office pub - the three kings. i made my way up to the bar and discovered a tab was open. mega score! since i wanted to be out for the long haul, i ordered a "light" beer - stella artois. people here consider this a wife beater beer, so i guess it's like the Beast or something. don't know, don't care, i like it, i'm drinking it.

three kings was beyond hot inside, so we ended up drinking our pints outdoors, because in london, it's perfectly cool to wander around with open containers. a few rounds later, the tab had closed and people were getting antsy so everyone left and went to dust, a club/bar nearby. we went with my co-worker/pal and her boyfriend to smith's first though, so that he could collect a few of his friends. while we were there i tried my first cider - magner's! mmmm.

the friends were a bit...drunk...and amorous...so us girls went out ahead of the goofy guys and we made our way to dust. dust was PACKED, and our crew of co-workers took up most of the back half of the bar. for some reason i decided to switch to G&T but then, upon looking around, i noticed everyone had switched to liquor so we were clearly in for a long night.

it was really fun to socialize with everyone outside the office - good to see that cool people seem to be a global standard in this company! :-) after a few hours(?) of chatting, American 80's music began piping through the speakers and the 15 or so of us that remained ended up cutting a rug. what was really great was the blockade we formed...everyone was looking out for each other, making sure no one ended up with awkward creepy dudes sneaking up from behind. good, good times.

at midnight i realized that it was indeed a school night, and so Christine and I decided to jet. however i was STARVING (no time for dinner) and not sure where what kind of food was around...so i asked the kind policeman outside the club where i could get a bite. luckily a restaurant was right around the corner! gotta love this city.

an order of cheese fries and a cheeseburger later, we were ready to go home, which thankfully was only a few blocks away. about three blocks from the flat we discovered a shopping cart (trolley if you're British)!!! naturally i ordered Christine to hop in so i could push her around.

this morning came way too darn fast, and we were a bit slow getting ready for work. i finally staggered out the door at 9:15 or so and there, in the alley, was the shopping cart. right where i left it. :-)